For the 12th time the Bitfilm Festival invites digital filmmakers to participate in its online film competition. All films will be screened over the Internet. Film fans from all around the world may decide on the Bitfilm Awards by casting their vote online in these three categories:

- MACHINIMA: films which are shot live inside a computer game or a virtual world like Second Life

The Bitfilm Festival will commence with an opening event in Bitfilm's hometown Hamburg, Germany's media capital, which will take place in the Passage Cinema on October 17, 2011. Like every year since 2003, Bitfilm is supported by the Hamburg's media authority.

The closing event, which includes the award ceremony, will take place in India's hi-tech metropolis Bangalore on December 3 to 4, 2011. With the support of CG Tantra, India's leading portal for computer graphics, and the Goethe Institute Bangalore, Bitfilm will show the most popular films of the competition. Film makers,animators and visual effects specialists will talk about their work and exchange ideas across cultural borders.

The Bitfilm Festival will be the first film festival worldwide which pays the prize money in Bitcoins, the new digital currency.

Bitcoin is money that is generated by a sophisticated mathematical process on the Internet without the need of a central bank.

It is designed to be as rare as gold and will therefore not be subject to inflation. Its value has risen from a few cents to over 20 US Dollars in the last months. More than 2000 products and services can be bought with Bitcoin and its acceptance as a means of payment is constantly rising.

The Bitfilm Festival's prize money will be raised through a crowd sourcing process. Participating filmmakers and film fans who like to watch Bitfilms on the Internet are asked to transfer Bitcoins (or small fractions of it) to Bitfilm's wallet. The result will be split between the award winners in our three award categories.

We have postponed the submission deadline for the Bitfilm Festival to September 11, which gives you 10 extra days to finish and submit your film to this year's festival, which will take place in Hamburg (Germany), Bangalore (India) and on the Internet.

We are also introducing a new and simple way to submit your film. If your film is already on YouTube or Vimeo, you may just add the video ID and we will embed it into our festival site - no need to upload it to our server!

Of course you may still use our upload service. Your film will then be visible in our YouTube channel.

Feel free to submit your film one way or the other. We are looking forward to watching your film!

Please keep in mind: The deadline for the online vote of this year's Bitfilm Festival is November 17, 2011. 59 films compete in three categories for the Bitfilm Awards. You can watch them online and decide which films will win.

Produce a Machinima film in just one day at the Bitfilm Festival! Machinima filmmakers may do this at the festival venue in Bangalore, India, or from hereever they are.

The MachiniMarathon will start on December 3, 2011 at 3pm (Indian time), the deadline is December 4th, 3pm (Indian time).

You may prepare a story from now on, but shooting may only start at the official kick-off. To make sure that nobody cheats, we will then tell you a few things that have to appear in the film at the kick-off.

For the 12th year in a row, the Bitfilm Festival presents films that use digital technology in a creative and innovative way. This year it has started with an opening event in Hamburg, Germany on October 17, and carried on with a global Internet-based film competition. Its climax will be the closing event, which willtake place for the first time in India's hi-tech metropolis Bangalore.

It will start with the award ceremony on December 2nd, where the most popular films of these three categories will be screened:

MACHINIMA: films which are shot live inside a computer game or a virtual world likeSecond Life

The winner films in each category have been chosen by Bitfilm's worldwide audiencein an online vote.

Bitfilm was the first festival worldwide with a Machinima competition for game-based films. In Bangalore it will also host a worldwide Machinima Marathon, bringing together game-based filmmakers from across the globe. Participants of this contest are required to produce a Machinima film over a span of 24 hours.

"We are really happy to reach out to the wonderful Indian audience, and we are looking forward to engage with young and creative Indian minds", says Aaron Koenig, Director of the Bitfilm Festival.

The Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology has taken responsibility to help in hosting the 12th Bitfilm festival in collaboration with the Goethe Institute / Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore. Christoph Bertrams, Director of the institute says: "It's a great privilege for us to bring the Bitfilm Festival to India, as it has been quite a success in Hamburg, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and other cities".

Bangalore, December 2, 2011: The results are out! The global Bitfilm audience has chosen the winners of the Bitfilm Festival 2011 through an online vote.

In the category 3D SPACE (computer generated 3D animations), the award goes to Kasi Medidi from Hyderabad (India) for the short film "Feel the Punch".

In the category FX MIX (digitally composed hybrid films) the award goes to Alexander Gellner from Berlin (Germany) for the short film ?One Minute Puberty?.

In the category MACHINIMA (films shot live in computer games or virtual worlds) the award goes to Philipp Scheifelbein from Frankfurt (Germany) for the short film "Tales of Crusade".

The Bitfilm Awards were conferred on the winners this evening at a ceremony held at the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore. The most popular films in each category were screened, to the tune of live music from Banglaore?s sound artist Yashas Shetty.

The Bitfilm Festival 2011 began with an Opening Night in Hamburg (Germany) in October 2011. After a month-long global online voting session, Bangalore hosts the Closing Event and climax of the world?s leading online & live festival for digital film.

The Bitfilm Festival continues on December 3rd and 4th (Saturday and Sunday), with all 59 nominated films from this year?s Festival being screened at the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan. There is no entry fee. All are welcome!

On Saturday December 2nd there will be a party at the same venue with DJs Nikhil (Bicycle Days, Bangalore) and Andres (Argentina) with live visuals. Entry is Rs. 200 only per head - 9.00 p.m. onwards.

Caf? Max on the rooftop of the Goethe-Institut is the venue for talks by filmmakers, animators and digital artists. Please check http://www.bitfilm.com/festival for the details.

This Festival has been organised by Bitfilm in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and the Srishti School for Art, Design and Technology Bangalore and is a part of the Year Germany and India 2011-2012 Infinite Opportunities.